Ordinary diners who take part in our annual survey each spring review restaurants and leave their feedback, but we also ask them to score restaurants from 1-5 on food, service and ambience. Harden’s then uses an average of these scores and measures them against other establishments in the same price bracket to arrive at the ratings published in the guide and online.

Snippets from some of your feedback may end up in the overall Harden’s review, noticeably they appear in “double quotation marks”. The rest of our pithy, bite-sized restaurant summaries are compiled by analysing the survey data and extracting recurring themes, looking at whether or not a venue was nominated in any of our categories – like ‘favourite’ or ‘most overpriced’ – and, of course, looking at the ratings for food, service and ambience.

The Harden’s ratings indicate that a restaurant is:

exceptional very good good average poor

All reviews are compiled from survey comments and ratings, without any regard for our own personal opinions, except in cases where restaurants are too new to have been included in the survey. If you want the editors’ view on new restaurants in London you can find them in our Editors’ Review section.

“Completely original, full of life, soul and glorious seasonal food” – “You have to share tables (which is not for everyone)” at Dale Mailley and Edward Murray’s “intimate” and “friendly” sustainably-minded venture (“enhanced by the turntable playing vinyls plucked from the stack”), in a small, stone building in the middle of Royal Terrace Gardens. In mid 2017, they opened a new spin-off, Quay Commons – a Leith bakery.

All agree the TV chef’s Georgian house in New Town has potential. But while fans praise its “delicious” cuisine, the odd sceptic feels that “the end result did not warrant the evident effort that was put in”.

From the well-stocked bar to the ever-popular tables overlooking Edinburgh Castle, One Square is somewhere to spend leisurely afternoons, to meet with friends for dinner or sit out on the terrace and sip a perfectly-poured G&T.
The simple yet memorable name, One Squ...

“An exceptional use of a variety of ingredients without overloading dishes” creates food that’s “divine but not heavy” at Paul Kitching’s offbeat but comfortable and “secluded” Georgian townhouse, where “attentive but relaxed and friendly service” adds to the experience.

2015 Review: “The obvious place to meet for a meal in Edinburgh!” – a “timeless” former banking hall provides the “dramatic” and “uplifting” setting for this New Town rendezvous, and the cooking is often surprisingly “imaginative” too.

2014 Review: The “stunning location” is the USP of this “relaxed but smart” room with dramatic castle views; most reports say the food (seafood in particular) is also a highlight, but as ever it takes flak for being noticeably “overpriced”.